Mass murderer Anders Breivik is suing the Norwegian state over his 'inhuman' imprisonment

Adam Payne

Mar. 3, 2016, 6:09 AM

Anders Breivik is a far-right terrorist who claimed the lives of 77 people in attacks in July 2011 AP

The mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has accused the Norwegian state of violating his human rights and says his treatment in prison is "degrading" and "inhuman," AFP reports.

The killer, who was sentenced to 21 years in prison for killing 77 people in lone wolf terrorist attacks in 2011, is currently being held at a high-security facility in southern Norway.

Breivik said he plans to sue the Norwegian authorities over his treatment, which he claims is in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Breivik's lawyer, Oystein Storrivk, says his client is suffering from "clear isolation damage" as a result of being deprived of interaction with visitors, according to AFP.

Storrvik claims in a document submitted to the court that "the only visit from a non-professional (in the first two years of Breivik's sentence) was that of the plaintiff's mother" just before she passed away.

Ahead of the hearing into Breivik's complaints which will take place later this month, the Norwegian attorney general has defended the terms of the killer's incarceration - saying they are "well within what is permitted."

Official documentation has shown that Breivik has access to as many as three cells within the jail: one for living, another for studying and the third for exercise.

He also has access to a TV, a games console, a computer, and is said to be able to prepare his own food and do his own laundry.

Breivik, however, is banned from having contact with other inmates, but is allowed to interact with guards and professional staff.

General view of the gym at Skien prison, south of Oslo, February 12, 2016. The gym will be turned into a court room next month, when Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik goes to court to argue that his effective solitary confinement makes him a victim of cruel and inhuman treatment. REUTERS/Cornelius Poppe/NTB Scanpix Marius Emberland, the legal representative who will defend the Norwegian authorities at the hearing, told AFP:

There are limits to his contact with the outside world which are of course strict - it pretty much has to be that way - but he is not totally excluded from all contact with other people.

Authorities add that the restrictions are necessary to prevent Breivik, whose sentence could be extended if considered a danger to society, from building up an "extremist network" while in prison.

In July 2011, Breivik killed eight people in a bomb attack outside a government building in Oslo before then murdering a further 69 when he opened fire at a Labour Youth camp on the island of Utøya.